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Yes it can if it's using a Crowd SourcingWebsite to raise money for your IVF treatment. One couple in Melbourne Florida used crowdsourcing to raise the $5000 they needed to have treatment that ultimately resulted in the birth on April 7th of their baby Landon. Being savvy enough to crowdsource a baby the couple of course talked about it on their twitter account.

Jessica Haley ‏ @jesshaley Tonight we came home as a family of 3! Thank you again to everyone who has been part of this journey with us. It truly is a dream come true.

The baby 'project'was posted for crowdsourcing on the US website IndiGoGo and was more than successful raising over $8000. I had a similar experience with the Australian site Pozible when my nephew posted his project to raise money for a trip to the London Olympics, people and businesses were incredibly generous. There are all sorts of projects online, films, albums, operas, businesses all worth taking a look at, you might even have a project of your own!

People are generous and kind. Dreams are inspiring. These crowdsourcing websites makes some people's dreams come true but could you ask strangers for a donation to make your goal of becoming a parent possible?

Some people have to ask for more than money, they need to ask for donations of eggs or sperm. I interviewed two women last year, one a donor and another a woman who just wanted to become a mother. The generosity of the donor and the happiness of the new mother had me in floods of tears. I wanted to become a donor then and there! If you would like to hear their story it's a Babytalk Podcast. It's one of my favourites. I'd really like to hear your story if you've had to make an extraordinary journey to become a parent. You can email me at: Babytalk at your.abc.net.au

One of the best investments you can make towards the health and wellness of your whole family is to make exercise a united priority. The Mothers Day Classic is the perfect opportunity for the family to get together, share a common goal and have some fun whilst you boost the fitness of the whole clan and support the fight against breast cancer.

Not only is it time effective, but you’ll be amazed how exercising together generates fabulous chat time and the opportunity to share experiences, ideas and problem solve.

Regular exercise decreases the risk of numerous health issues such as diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular conditions and gives you more energy to enjoy each day. Add a little family fitness and you’ll discover increased energy for every day life, work and play.

There is no doubt that exercise and a healthy diet can help look good and feel great, plus you’ll find working together towards a common goal is a great way to bring the family together and feel inspired to urge each other on.

With 5 weeks to go until the walk or run, you’ve got plenty of time to work together to build a fitter family ready to walk or run for the fight against breast cancer and a fun day out.

GETTING STARTED

It is important to work together. Realistic family goals may be determined by the younger child or any physical limitations experienced by a member of the family. The Mothers Day Classic is all about sharing and community spirit, not competitions so just being active together is what matters.

Prior to puberty children’s physiology is suited to stop start activities rather than long endurance activities, so the 4 km walk is ideal for those with younger children. Families with children around 12 or upwards may choose to walk or run. Don’t forget there’s always next year.

Aim to share 2 or 3 activity sessions per week. Starting with a short walk, say 1 km and gradually build up the pace and distance over the next 5 weeks.

When you find a session has been quite comfortable, add an extra 500 m or pick up the speed a little, adding a light jog or a power walk component when appropriate. Gradually add speed or distance, always monitoring your bodies and looking out for each other along the way.

FAMILY FITNESS, TIPS FOR SUCCESS

Set goals

Choose your goal together, making sure it is realistic and achievable.

Take into account the age and pre-existing health and fitness of all family members.

Make it work

Consider timetables and other commitments and choose 2 or 3 times in your week that will work for everyone involved. If an activity session can be a part of your normal day, all the better. Walk to school or a jog around the oval whilst the younger brother is playing cricket are just two examples.

Keep it going

Commit as a group to being positive and reliable, and always encourage one another .

Add small rewards along the way. For example “When we have successfully done 6 training sessions in two weeks, we will go to the movies”

Make a plan

Design a training program together or find a good trainer to get you started.

Chart your progress

Record your goal at the top of a sheet of paper

Chart each activity session: where, how (walk or run etc) , how far and time

Slow and steady wins the race

Be sure to progress gradually to avoid stress or strain.

Remember small steps make for great change

Variety is the spice of life

Try different paths and take a fun trip out of town occasionally to keep it interesting.

Add variety to your fitness sessions occasionally to keep it fun and varied. Swimming, cycling or roller blading are just a few suggestions

Get started with 2 or 3 walks this week Enjoy the time together and enjoy the results.

Now is the time to get walking to ensure you have plenty of energy for thethis year's Mothers Day Classic. Start out with a simple walk … today!

Walk and talk: Recruit your family or a friend so you can share the journey and catch up along the way. An easy flat kilometre is a good starting distance.

WALKING TECHNIQUE

Walk tall

Stride out

Active arms

Use your core (draw your lower abdomen towards your lower back and breathe normally as you stride with confidence)

Plan to exercise at least 3 times per week

It’s normal to feel like your muscles have worked if you are increasing your activity levels, but if at any time you feel aches and pains, especially in your joints, you may need to cut back or seek advice from your doctor or physiotherapist

Week 1

Stroll between 500 m to 1km the first day.

Assuming all feels fine as you stroll, then pick up the pace to a brisk walk over the next two outings.

Week 2

Add 500 m per walk, assuming all felt fine in the first week

This will take you up to 1.5 – 2 km

No pressure on pace yet. A brisk “walk and talk” is perfect. Ie work at a level that you are comfy to talk but you may not feel like singing.

Week 3

Add interest, motivation and training effect by varying your route.

A slightly more hilly terrain will boost your fitness further.

Assuming all is well continue to add 500 m each week if you are aiming for the 4km walk and 1km per week if aiming for the 8km Mothers day Classic.

Week 4

Repeat the tracks you’ve walked over the last week, but now aim to take approx. 1 minute off your time each walk

This may mean spurts of power walking or light jogs, or simply an overall faster stride.

Week 5

Continue to explore new paths and walks, adding light jogs or power walks if the you and your walking mates are up for it. Start looking to add hills and stairs to your outings and you will be truly boosting your fitness by now.

Add an extra long walk if time permits and aim to walk a path similar to the Mothers Day Classic a week or so prior to the day

Going further than the actual distance will have you feeling confident and at ease on the day of the event.

Enjoy your new found energy, strength and motivation and please come and say hi to Lisa Westlake at the main stage if you are joining as at the Melbourne event.

Have you ever wanted to enter the Mothers Day Classic but were always a little afraid of taking part in a Fun Run?

Are you a new mum ready to take on a new challenge (what the baby wasn't enough work?) Would you love to get back on the exercise bandwagon but are just a little afraid of doing too much after having a baby?

ABC Babytalk is running it's very own team in the Mothers Day Classic this year and we want you on board. We want to make sure you can enjoy the day so we've got a podcast series just for you to get training for the event.

Lisa Westlake is a Physiotherapist at Physical Best, a gym instructor and passionate about getting new mums back into exercise. She has designed a special program for us at Babytalk to give you the best chance of really enjoying all the fun and exercise opportunities of the Mothers Day Classic Fun Run.

WALKING

If you’ve been doing very little of late, start off with a simple 15 minute walk, every day if possible or at least 4 in the week.

Progress this by 5 minutes each session in the next week or even earlier if you’re feeling comfortable. The aim is to feel like you’ve exercise without being absolutely exhausted at the end. You should be able to talk as you walk.

Continue to add 5 minutes each week or sooner. By week 3 you can also add hills and a little speed, but more about that in the next issue.

WALK RUN

If you’re already walking, maybe you’d like to spruce up your distance and speed.

Simply continue your walk, but intersperse 50 or 100 metre jogs in amongst the route. Start with just a few and gradually increase the jogging spurts. You’ll find you cover the distance so much faster.

By the second week, add a little extra distance and continue to gradually intersperse more jogging into your session.

RUNNING 4 km So this year you are planning to run the tan?

With five weeks to go, you should be able to comfortably run about 2km or walk 4km of the event at least. Aim to train 3 to 4 days per week.

Start with a 2 to 3 km combined walk / run and gradually increase the running components each training session . When you feel comfortable running most of that distance, gradually add about 500 m each week, until you can cover the 4km. If you are feeling fine with your distance, add hills or speed to further boost your fitness.

RUNNING 8 KM If you are planning to run 8 km this mothers day classic you should be able to run a comfortable 4- 5 km a good 5 weeks prior to the event.

Aim to train 3 to 4 days per week.

Start with a 3- 5 km combined walk / run and gradually increase the running components each training session . When you feel comfortable running most of that distance, gradually add about 1 km per week, until you can cover the 8km. Adding hills, sprints or upping the overall speed are great ways to continue your fitness gains as the weeks go on.

TECHNIQUE TIPS

Warm up by taking the first hundred metres lightly. A few shoulder rolls and deep breaths will help relax your neck and shoulders and get your body and mind connected for your walk.

To engage your core, think of the area between your naval and your pubic bone. This is where the deep abdominals lie. Gently draw in below the naval to recruit these muscles that support your spine and provide excellent foundations for exercise.

Walk tall and proud, being open across the chest ( avoid slouching)

Remember to use your arms when you walk, especially when you are picking up a little speed, at which stage you will bend your knees, stride out, and bend your elbows to move them by your side as they assist your strong long step.

Run for fun

Beware of pounding the pavement. Look after your feet by thinking light.

Check your posture is long but relaxed through the neck and shoulders, your deep abdominals are indrawn to engage your core and you are running well, rolling through from your heel to the front of your foot.

Stretch

Stretch your calves, quadriceps, gluteals and hamstrings after each session. Hold each stretch at the point of slight tension for 30 seconds or more.

Quality not quantity

Take time, especially initially, to find good form and a comfortable effective walking or running technique.

If in doubt, find out

If you’re not sure if your style is fine, a session or two with a physio or trainer will be well worthwhile.

Listen to your body

Listen to your body and check yourself occasionally for tension, jolting or locking joints. The more you take the time to think about good form as you get a few walk or run sessions under your belt, the more your body will tell you.

Variety is the spice of life

Not only should you vary your route for fresh interest and new things to look at, but also varying your exercise regime is great for your body and your inspiration. Try alternating a session here and there with swimming, cycling or roller-blading. They are all great for your fitness and fun too.

Enjoy your new found fitness and see you at the Mother’s Day Classic.

When you enter, make sure you join our team!

Entries for the Mothers Day Classic can be found online, there are over 50 events around Australia, there is even an entry option if you are somewhere else in the world and would still like to take part (you can still join up with the ABC Babytalk team!) We are going to announce some great prizes and giveaways to our team and we're working on team Babytalk t-shirts as we speak. Even if you were the last person picked on the netball team at High School, (sound familiar to anyone?) we want you on our team now!

One of the things I try and do on Babytalk is to not just post the weekly podcast but to keep you up to date with stories about babies and parenting that I discover online. Not every one enjoys being on Facebook (but if you'd like to 'like' us it's a fun way of connecting quickly with what a lot of other parents are responding to!)

The Babytalk Podcast last week was all about getting your washing done with a minimum of environmental impact. Is it possible to substitute harmful ingredients with natural ones that work just as well? The development chemist and founder of New Zealand business Ecco Store joined us to talk about getting those clothes clean and bright without harmful brightening agents!

Fashion Week in London employed a very heavily pregnant model to walk naked down the runway wearing natty hats. Did anyone notice the hats?

Feeling a bit blue when sending your tiny family members off to childcare is something most of us feel is just a bit harder on a Monday, so many readers liked reading about a fun game to ‘fill your children up with love’ as a way to start the week!

We sent five friends from Facebook off to the Toddler Tea Party at the Footscray Arts Center on the weekend. (Another reason to join us on facebook!)

Having an unusual leap day in this month lead me to speculate on what happens to babies who have a birthday only once every four years, they’re called ‘leaplings’ but then it's also the day that women can propose to men

If you’re feeling somewhat nostalgic for the way we played games as youngsters ‘Parlour Games for Modern Families’ might be something you’re interested in to revive life without electronic games. It was also a great excuse to post this video!

We had some great responses to an economist Glenn Whitman who decided that pretty much everything could be reduced to just 'two things' and we had some great responses to the 'two things of being a parent!

We asked our audience to come up with the ‘two things’ of being a parent and had a great response.

1) Keep them as healthy as possible, 2) Set a good example in all you do.

‎1) Trust your instincts a mother knows best and 2) just remember to have fun.

‎1)Do the best you can. 2) Let go of the guilt and have fun.

‎1) aside from the survival basics, love is all your baby needs. 2) happy mummy = happy baby (or should that be the other way round....)

1) Even your imperfections as a parent will teach your child something and 2) Kids bounce

Can you describe your parenting journey in 'two things'? Join us on facebook and let us know!

A selection of thriller and suspense titles for entertaining holiday reading.

Dead Centre / Andy McNab – Bantam Press, 2011

Andy McNab has written a number of books featuring soldier turned mercenary, Nick Stone. This story starts in tsunami hit Banda Aceh on a job to destroy incriminating evidence of an oil deal. After one of his associates is killed, Nick makes a promise to his dead friend to protect his widow, Tracey. Tracey ends up remarrying, and moving away, and Nick is confident she is happy and well, until he is contacted by a Russian “businessman” who wants Nick to track down his kidnapped wife and son. It transpires that the Russian has married Tracey and so Nick is given the opportunity to fulfil his promise. At first it appears a simply matter of paying off the Somali pirates, but soon people from both men’s pasts become involved and plots within plots are exposed. McNab at times is quite cynical in how he portrays people and events, but in the end it turns into a contest between who has the most firepower, and the will to use it.

Prey / Linda Howard – Piatkus, 2011

Angie Powell has run a wilderness guide business for a number of years, but another hunting business has begun to rival Angie’s and her only choice is to sell up while she can. Before the end of the season she organizes one last trip into the wilderness with a client and his guest, who wants to bag a black bear. But things turn deadly when Angie discovers the body of a man killed by a bear, and her client also has a far deadlier reason for his hunting trip. A romantic suspense novel – the romance section seems to occupy the centre portion of the book, with the thriller/suspense parts cover the start and finish. Entertaining reading if you aren’t looking for anything too involved.

The Affair / Lee Child – Bantam Press, 2011

Lee Child’s Jack Reacher novels are always popular, and in this one Child has gone back before the beginning of his first novel in the series, and looks at Reacher while he is still in the military.A young woman is dead, and solid evidence points to a soldier at a nearby military base. But that soldier has powerful friends in Washington. Reacher is ordered undercover—to find out everything he can, to control the local police, and then to vanish. You don’t need to have read the other books in the series to enjoy this novel, although it will help with placing some events in context.

A bazillion years ago at university I studied science. I have a bachelor's degree to prove it. One of the things I remember is how hard it is to write up an experiment. Getting the paramaters right, the wording of the actual point you're trying to prove, the tests to support the hypothesis and finally the cross referencing to other learned articles from academics that will support your methodology. It's hard work being a scientist but after Tuesday morning I'm reminded of how hard it can be to be a parent.. sort of.

We've kind of moved on from most of the waking up in the middle of the night problems.. (fingers crossed!) However Trevor Chappell from the Overnight program invited me to be part of his program on Tuesday morning. I was keen because I wanted to talk about the Babytalk podcast this week which is about the amazing Rhonda Galbally and her experiences of polio as a baby. I had a hunch that people listening to the program might have a lot to say about the polio epidemics that swept through Melbourne and I was right. Listeners rang and talked about being kept home from school, being taken to hospital as tiny children and how the survived and went on to become terrific contributers to society.

The talkback was so interesting and went so well, if you'd like to hear Trevor's amazing listeners talking about their experiences of childhood polio it I've given you an edited version!

This is where my experiment begins. One normal (almost) functioning working parent has on the morning of her day off per week, has a one hour sleep interruption where she's required to do nothing difficult (like feed or get a tiny baby back to sleep) but it ruins her for the next 48 hours. What's going on here? I was the bear with a sore head yesterday. Even as I type this I doubt my ability to work the microwave to heat up my lunch and that's after a very long good nights sleep last night.

My conclusion from this experiment of one person, one night's interruption of sleep is that it can drive you round the bed. If you're the parent of a new baby and you're just doing the bare basics, one nightly feed, one early morning feed, don't make any major decisions! Please don't be in charge of the nuclear launch codes, the calculation of the Federal budget or be doing some tricky re-calibrations for the mission to Mars. If you're feeling that life is just too hard, everything's lost it's spark, you don't want to play any more, please consider how much uninterrupted sleep you've had lately. It could well be that it might be time to bank up a couple of express feeds (for someone else to deliver), book a babysitter (while you go upstairs and go to sleep) or just lie down and close your eyes while the baby does.

It might be enough to make things seem a little more possible, skies a little more blue, your baby and partner a bit more fun to be around. To everyone else who had to deal with me yesterday, my apologies.. one more night's sleep might bring me back to human.

I am horrified when I do the maths and realise that the last big royal wedding was 30 years ago! I remember it so clearly, the lobbying to get out of a test the next day because clearly none of us girls were going to be studying anything other than the TV that night.

This time round I am going to be at the wedding of a tall sandy haired Englishman who interestingly will be marrying a slender dark-haired beauty but there will be slightly fewer heads of state at this romantic affair when Adam marries Sarah rather than William marrying Catherine!

I am wondering how you will be spending this the latest Royal Wedding? I love that you can knit your own Royal Wedding (will you have time?) There's a Lego version of the wedding complete with celebrities and for the littler children this set:

In the set you get The QueenPrince GroomPrincess Bride PrinceMounted Royal guardRoyal driverHorse drawn carriageCorgi (obviously important)

There's so much stuff floating around about the Royal Wedding you there's a tumblr page dedicated to the strange and unusual souvenirs that are currently available.

I don't want you to think I'm not beyond a bit of glossy magazine browsing and I'll be interested to tune in during the break between Adam and Sarah's wedding ceremony and reception to check out the other dress! Out of the whole raft of details that have been leaked and speculated over my favourite is the tiny detail of a second wedding cake at the reception. Apparently there will be the brandy soaked fruit cake, beautifully decorated with sugar flowers of the British Isles made by an award winning cake maker but there will also be another cake, one that is far less fancy but to my mind a bit more tasty. The British like to refer to it as a "Nursery Treat" it's a cake that brings back memories of a favourite desert from childhood. If I was staying at home to watch the royal wedding on television I this is what I would want to be eating, a slice of cake that might just bring back happy memories of a childhood and a mum that is sadly absent from the celebrations. After a lot of hunting I tracked down the recipe although the manufacturers say it's a "secret" but if you make it raise a fork to absent friends and wish all the newlyweds the best of luck and love for the future!

If you're keen on keeping up with the latest from London my colleague (while not exactly attending) will be as close as it's possible to be to the action, and tweeting away! You can subscribe to his tweets at twitter, his name is GaryABC.

And a post-script.. if you want to see Sarah the bride who had to share Will & Kate's big day.. she made the headlines on another news serivce!

There have been some terrible stories making headlines lately about cruel and vengeful fathers taking the lives of their children. Our justice system struggles but has dealt them strong judgment. The stories of lost children and selfish parents are so sad I wanted to share the life of a father who will take your breath away with his love and sacrifice.

The story of Dick Hoyt makes me cry with gladness that there are men that never give up on their children, who will do whatever it takes to make their children's lives better whatever the cost.

In 1962 Dick and Judy Hoyt had a baby boy. Complications with the birth meant the new parents were told their baby was a spastic quadriplegic with cerebral palsy. Dick and Judy were advised to institutionalize Rick because there was no chance of him recovering, and little hope for Rick to live a "normal" life. While this was a diagnosis that had driven so many parents before them to disapair this was just the beginning of Dick and Judy's quest for their child's inclusion in community, sports, education and one day, the workplace.

When eventually technology caught up with their need to communicate with their son, the Hoyts were able to realise what an amazing child laid trapped in a disabled body. Again we've heard stories like this where technology has made it possible to communicate, ABC Television's 'Hungry Beast' showed a remarkable interview with a woman who's resilience and humour in dealing with her 'locked in' syndrome is an inspiration.

What has brought Dick and Rick Hoyt to the public arena is the pair's astonishing participation in marathons, triathlons and even the iron-man competitions. In 1977 Rick told his father that he wanted to participate in a 5-mile benefit run for a Lacrosse player who had been paralyzed in an accident. Far from being a long-distance runner, Dick agreed to push Rick in his wheelchair and they finished all 5 miles, coming in next to last. That night, Rick told his father, "Dad, when I'm running, it feels like I'm not handicapped."

That was all the inspiration his father needed.

They have competed in 1000 races, triathlons, biathlon's and iron man events.

In a triathlon, Dick will pull Rick in a boat with a bungee cord attached to a vest around his waist for the swimming stage. For the biking stage, Rick will ride a special two-seater bicycle, and then Dick will push Rick in his custom made running wheel chair (for the running stage).

Rick was once asked, if he could give his father one thing, what would it be? Rick responded, "The thing I'd most like is for my dad to sit in the chair and I would push him for once."

The 2009 Boston Marathon was officially Team Hoyt's 1000th race. Rick always says if it comes down to doing one race a year he would like it to be the Boston Marathon: his favorite race. Dick Hoyt hopes that he is able to push Rick in the Boston Marathon when he is 70 years old that's this year.

There is a beautiful video of the father and son journey on their website with more details that will make your heart feel very full indeed.

I can remember the first childcare center I visited when I was getting ready to return to work. It was horrible. I hated those little children sitting on the floor waiting for someone to pick them up (they didn't wait long, it was a lovely center and the staff were constantly scooping up the babies for a cuddle). nonetheless I don't think I let my baby's feet touch the ground for about a week after that.

Eventually we had the decision taken away from us because there was a two year waiting list at the childcare centers we wanted to use. Note to expectant mothers put your name on the waiting list NOW even if you don't think you'll be using childcare. I was lucky enough to start back at work with a nanny for two days a week. I shared with another mum from my mother's group and I had to spend one more day at work than planned to pay for this special care.

I was lucky to have the option, I was unlucky to miss out on the childcare I wanted, I was lucky to have an amazing job to come back to... this is how Babytalk started! I thought I was unlucky to have to come back to work I was enjoying being a mum way to much. I was lucky that I worked for a Government Corporation that had maternity leave, lucky that I was old enough to have long service leave. Lucky, unlucky swings and roundabouts we do what we have to do to get by, so why are we beating ourselves up about the choices? Why are there arguments raging in the media of 'stay-at-home-mums' versus 'working-mothers'?

My sisters have stayed at home since they had children. One sister now works part time while her children are in the second half of primary school. My partner works part time so do I. Out of our mothers group most of us are now back at work. Only one mum was able to stay at home. None of us feels any of us have made the wrong choice, we did what we had to do. Didn't having children teach us all that hard lesson? There comes a time when you have to realise that it's not going to turn out exactly as planned, the books/articles/internet doesn't have all the answers? Even if it's as ridiculous as a massive pooh-nami (pooh explosion) nappy just as you're all dressed and ready to go out or a baby that refuses to settle night after night.

So do we forget these lessons when our children get to school? Why? Can we just stop arguing about it? Working mothers don't hate stay at home mothers, we're jealous that you do get to stay at home with the children, you know exactly what they do every day, you don't miss a single, smile, fall, triumph or tantrum. Stay at home mothers don't despise working mothers, we are jealous that you get to wear nice clothes, go to the bathroom alone during the day, come home and greet your children with real enthusiasm because you truly did miss them and you can use your other talents to earn money.

One of my favourite pieces of parenting research that I've featured on Babytalk was a study that showed mothers who worked part time seemed to have the best healthoutcomes for their children. This was a surprise even to the researchers (I love when researchers don't get the results they were expecting!) If you want to find out more there's a Babytalk podcast and I wrote a blog article about it back in September.

Now my happy two year old attends a lovely childcare center three days a week. Coincidentally it's the center we first visited that I hated. The staff are just lovely, they don't hesitate to cuddle when required and the facilities provide a caring and exciting environment that my two year old loves. Yet even as I write this it's still a wrench. I can feel those little hands giving me a cuddle I long to hear what he's babbling about right now it's enough of an internal wrench to leave him I don't want to hear a fatuous debate in a newspaper or on line. It's an argument no-one will ever win.

Have you ever watched your toddler and thought how they sometimes look like slightly wonky adults?Swedish film-maker Johannes Nyholm constructed this hilarious short film, starring his baby, about a middle-aged woman on vacation trashing a bar. It's very funny and rather remarkable how in a different perspective a toddler really can look like an unplesantly drunk woman!

Goodness me what will those naughty children think of next. They call themselves the 'Icecreamists', an ice-cream shop in Covent Garden, London.

They got quite a wave of publicity about their latest flavour, 'Baby Gaga'. It's made from human breast milk. For extra impact it's served with a rusk and an optional shot of Calpol or Bonjela by a Lady Gaga impersonator. Full points for trying people! Also well done on getting hold of enough breast-milk to make ice-cream especially when it took Melbourne a good two years to get their first breast-milk bank up and running. You hope the patient expressing mother gets a good portion of the almost $30 per serving price tag.

The 'supplier' is quoted as saying "If adults realised how tasty breast milk was more new mothers would be encouraged to breastfeed." The breast-milk is expressed on site and pasteurised before being churned with Madagascan vanilla pods and lemon zest. The owner if the 'Icecreamists' is making the claim which I suppose is technically correct that the milk is 'free-range' I'm not sure if that is it's most compelling selling point.

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The breast-milk ice-cream sold out hours after it went on sale and apparently 200 women have asked if they can donate after seeing the story on the BBC.

However the latest news from the BBC is that the local council has seized the remaining ice-cream stating there are potential risks to the public as the milk isn't screened properly. I have to admit that the whole idea of tasting breast milk wasn't something I wanted to experience. Obviously the baby was pretty keen on it.. but neither my partner or I had any interest in giving it a go ourselves. I would have remained completely ignorant about the taste of human breast milk until the incident of swinging the baby above my head immediately after a feed. "You're a little flying fish" turned into "Oh.. quick bucket.. blah" yep an accidental mouth-full of fresh breast-milk. But I did taste it. Yep if you could stand the thought, the flavour could well be a good ice-cream flavour because from my incredibly brief experience, it really tasted a lot like condensed milk.

PS if you watched the video story... did you notice the milk in the bottle isn't breast milk... becasue breastmilk has a pale blue sheen to it..

Sometimes you can find something online that makes you laugh and see things in a brand new perspective.

Who knew peeling paint could be so interesting? Maybe your local four year old!

Brooding Hen is a Californian blogger who has spruced up the home she shares with her three little superheroes with some googly eyes. She's got some more google eye ideas on her blog if you come up with some google eyes at your house, I'd love to see them! Email me here or post some photos in reply!

In just a note of caution if you suspect your paint is older than 1970 it might be worth checking whether it contains lead.. why is lead paint dangerous? You can listen to the Babytalk podcast about the hidden dangers of lead paint or read some more in this earlier blog entry. Both sites will give you further links to places where you can gather more information.

After a fortnight of watching and listening to the Queensland and Victorian flood coverage, chatting to friends in Brisbane who miraculously survived the inundation by just a few feet, keeping my fingers crossed for everyone during Cyclone Yasi, it eventually happened to me. The rain that hit Melbourne on Friday night flowed with it's full force right through the ground floor apartment we had just moved into. It of course happened at the worst possible time, leaving us furious, helpless and just bone exhausted by the sheer depressing annoyance of being flooded.

For the record our flood was comparatively minor, it was only rainwater not stinking toxic flood-waters that had time to fester and collect everything you don't want to think about, our flood was a flash flood that just dispersed rain from a massive roof and car-park overflow through our house.

Arriving home exhausted from the big clean up of the house we had just vacated, carrying the sleeping toddler in my arms, the front door opened to a floor glistening under an inch of water. We were the people you read about and tut tut, believe it or not we were without insurance.. well we have insurance for our house and our contents, it's just the contents were not in the house we had insured, what a nightmare. The water had inundated the lounge, kitchen, bathroom and of course the spare room that was stacked high with the boxes we were going to indulge ourselves by not unpacking just yet.

We were so kindly rescued, new neighbours pulled out their air bed, found the portable cot, the baby was put to sleep and the neighbour joined our human chain to try and rescue the contents of the boxes and move furniture out of harms way. Having watched the coverage of others affected by the floods and cyclone in Queensland, I tracked my own emotions through the wanting to burst into tears from tiredness, the stoic, It could have been worse, to the sheer annoyance of having to deal with yet another pile of junk (I'd already packed it to move and here it was all over again.)

We were lucky, the building management was right onto the flooding and industrial driers were in place within the hour pounding air through the flat drying out the soaking carpets. We only had another 24 hours as flood 'refugees' but at least we could stay at my mothers house. Inconvenience score massive, actual damage score low. At least you'll be pleased to know I tried to follow my own advice, keeping things as normal as possible for the baby, sticking to our family routines and trying to minimise the impact on his day.

What it did highlight to me was just how hard it must be for the families still living with the damage of the big serious floods in Queensland and Victoria. People who haven't been able to salvage anything from their stricken homes, still living on the kindness of others and waiting for the opportunity to turn their lives into something close to normal. You have my deepest heartfelt sympathy and admiration for making it work especially with children.